S.A.M (Smart Approaches to Marijiuana) - Media Release: United Nations Votes to Reclassify Marijuana Derivatives for Medical Purposes, Marijuana Still Illegal Under International Law

By Colton GraceDecember 2, 2020

The United Nations Commission on Narcotic Drugs narrowly voted by 27-25-1 to reclassify medically approved derivatives of the marijuana plant, recognizing such non-smoked medications as Epidiolex within the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs.

Marijuana remains in the Schedule I classification alongside cocaine and opioids, meaning the UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs has not approved of the legalization of the substance. The vote was only barely approved, along global west versus south lines generally.

There were four additional recommendations from the World Health Organization on marijuana and all four were rejected.

Dr. Kevin Sabet, founder and president of Smart Approaches to Marijuana (SAM), former senior drug policy advisor to the Obama Administration, and ONDCP head delegate to the UN released the following statement in response:

“Today’s vote did not legalize marijuana or get anywhere close to that. It did not sanction pot dispensaries or high THC products being sold there. This was really nothing more than a reclassification by the United Nations to acknowledge the limited scope of therapeutic benefits from medications that are derived from the marijuana plant. Epidiolex and Marinol are two drugs that have passed the scientific muster and have proven to be effective at providing relief to patients suffering from very specific disorders.

“We have long praised efforts to approve medications and treatments from marijuana derivatives that have proven efficacy, and today’s vote was just a recognition of this.

“This vote should in no way shape or form be seen as an endorsement of ‘medical marijuana’ or the legalization of the substance. As it stands, marijuana will remain in the Schedule I classification of the International drug control treaties and members of these treaties should do everything in their power to uphold their International obligations to reducing substance abuse and drug trafficking.”

https://learnaboutsam.org/united-nations-votes-to-reclassify-marijuana-derivatives-for-medical-purposes-marijuana-still-illegal-under-international-law/

Tuesday 10^th of November saw the staging of our Cannabis, Policy & Your Community – What is Best Practice Webinar with Q & A.

Both the timing and focus of this event was planned to give best opportunity for politicians, policy makers and key professionals in the health, welfare and education sectors to attend. An evening may have seen more people register, but we had a specific target group. We received over 70 registrations and 137 views during broadcast.

The facts on this heavily propagandized ‘product’ are thin on the ground, not because there is not overwhelming evidence of the risks and harms of cannabis, but because they are not engaged or broadcast.

In its stead, we have promotional mayhem, with relentless emotive anecdote and a tsunami of pro-cannabis marketing. This ‘assault’ on the uniformed public is having its desired effect, which people either indifferent to its further deployment or seeing it as not just ‘harmless’, but even perhaps  ‘good for them’. This of course is furlongs from the truth. But, as the old adage goes, ‘let’s not let facts get in the way of good story.’

This event was a bookend to our Cannabis Conundrum National Tour, held in February this year and our line up of presenters for this Webinar was nothing short of outstanding.

The program covered all the key issues, from mental health, to workplace issues, health harms and youth impact. Each presenter could have conducted a two-hour segment each, but the cogent 20-minute presentations with PowerPoint delivered the salient data which only invited all who engage to pursue more evidence-based research from each speaker.

1. Cannabis & Mental Health – Professor Jan Copeland 

2. Marijuana & the Workplace – Jo Maguire 

3. Marijuana & Emergency Department – Dr Karen Randall 

4. Permissive Norms and Laws and Longitudinal Harm to Youth – Professor John Toumbourou 

5. No State Has Been Successful in Regulating Marijuana – Scott Gagnon 

You can view each presentation on our YouTube Channel, and we continue to encourage you all to not only bookmark Cannabis Conundrum Continues, but share it far and wide with your networks, particularly parents, teachers and other community leaders.

Communications Team @ Dalgarno Institute

Cannabis resin now 25% more potent, global study reveals

Concentrations of intoxicating THC have risen, data from more than 80,000 street drug samples gathered over 50 years shows

Cannabis resin – or “hash” – has increased in strength by nearly 25% over the past half century, a major international study has revealed.

Researchers with the Addiction and Mental Health Group at the University of Bath analysed data from more than 80,000 cannabis street samples tested in the past 50 years in the US, UK, Netherlands, France, Denmark, Italy and New Zealand.

Their findings, published in the journal Addiction, reveal concentrations of THC – the intoxicating component of cannabis responsible for giving users a “high” – have changed over time.

“Cannabis resin is often seen as a safer type of cannabis, but our findings show that it is now stronger than herbal cannabis,” said study co-author Sam Craft. “Traditionally, cannabis resin contained much lower amounts of THC with equal quantities of CBD (cannabidiol, which is believed to have some health benefits), however CBD concentrations have remained stable as THC has risen substantially, meaning it is now much more harmful than it was years ago.”

The researchers have argued that increases in cannabis strength highlight the need for harm-reduction strategies similar to those used for alcohol – such as standard units and guidelines on safer consumption limits.

“As the strength of cannabis has increased, so too has the number of people entering treatment for cannabis use problems,” Freeman said. “More Europeans are now entering drug treatment because of cannabis than heroin or cocaine.”

For complete article  https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/nov/15/cannabis-resin-now-25-more-potent-global-study-reveals

Cannabis and Cardiovascular Health don’t mix!

In a very recent article in the New York Times  the reporter succinctly laid out the facts when it comes to the potential harms of marijuana use on cardiovascular health. 

“Do you have the heart to safely smoke pot? Maybe not, a growing body of medical reports suggest,” begins the piece — authored by Personal Health columnist Jane E. Brody. 

Brody’s piece lays out the evidence showing marijuana use impairs blood’s oxygen-carrying capacity, exposes users to harmful chemicals and leads to abnormal heart rhythms. The piece also explained how researchers are exploring the possible connections between high potency marijuana use and heart attacks and stroke. 

However, for anyone even vaguely interested in heart health and looking past the pot-propaganda would be aware that this is not a recent revelation; evidence-based research outlining the real cardio-vascular harms of Cannabis have been in play for years.

As far back as 2013 and 2014 reporters were writing on the potential harms of pot on the heart…

Here's another compelling reason to think twice before lighting up a joint: Smoking pot may more than double your risk of stroke, according to a new study being presented here today at the International Stroke Conference. (Charlene Laino, Special to Everyday Health)

Such reporting is hardly the basis for declaring marijuana use an outright cause of cardiovascular disease. But on Wednesday, cardiologists writing in the Journal of the American Heart Assn. warned that "clinical evidence ... suggests the potential for serious cardiovascular risks associated with marijuana use." (Melissa Healy – LA Times)

Cannabis dependence and abuse nearly doubled risk of heart attack post-surgery St. Michael's Hospital Patients with active cannabis dependence and abuse were nearly twice as likely to suffer a heart attack after surgery, according to a study led by researchers at St. Michael's Hospital of Unity Health Toronto. (Medical Xpress 2019)

"The effects of using cannabis are seen within 15 minutes and last for around three hours. At lower doses, it is linked to a rapid heartbeat. At higher doses, it is linked to a too-slow heartbeat," said Rikinkumar S. Patel, M.D., M.P.H., resident physician in the department of psychiatry at the Griffin Memorial Hospital in Norman, Oklahoma..."The risk of cannabis use linked to arrhythmia in young people is a major concern, and physicians should ask patients hospitalized with arrhythmias about their use of cannabis and other substances because they could be triggering their arrhythmias," said Patel. (Medical Express – Cannabis linked to Heart Rhythm Disturbances in Young)

 The research continues to grow (and exponentially) around the many physical and mental harms of this complex and highly unpredictable substance. The heart and stroke issues are a generally underestimated harm, that must not be continued to be overlooked. For more Evidence-based and published research check out the following.

• Cannabis exposure as an interactive cardiovascular risk factor and accelerant of organismal ageing: a longitudinal study
• Association Between Recreational Cannabis Use and Cardiac Structure and Function
• Interaction between Warfarin & Cannabis

Research & Communication Team,

The complexities and public health risks of attempting to regulate marijuana.

 Marijuana whether in its highly variable “natural” form or in its hybrid or engineered forms is highly problematic when it comes to the full range of its harmful side effects.

Even when thorough and exhaustive clinic research and trials are undertaken before attempting to bring cannabis-based product to market, there is no way of ensuring that there will not be unpredictable harmful effects, whether mental or physical.

There are a plethora of pot-propagandist claims on the ‘panacea potential’ of various potions, tinctures and formulations of the largely unregulated cannabis ‘supplement’ market, that are unleashing already evident and arguably untold harms moving forward, even approved medicines have risks, as indeed most medicines can have.

The sale of Dr Poppy’s Wonder Elixir started in the late 1800’s and sold in Australia up until the end of WW2, this sign dates to 1946 and was found in Alice Springs, Australia

There are those who would argue that even the cannabis-based epilepsy preparation Epidiolex ®. which has been deemed a “clinically approved “ medicine not only has a limited range and narrow efficacy, it can be argued that the full range of the harmful effects and risks involved in its use have not been fully acknowledged. This is the reality of trying to bring cannabis to the market:  there are an extremely wide range of harmful effects that will persist and pose a danger to public health that potentially cannot be remedied.

"No state can ever successfully regulate the use of marijuana owing to the fact that it has such idiosyncratic and unpredictable effects on users and those exposed to its use. No state can prevent the predictable as well as unpredictable genotoxic, arteriopathic, and teratogenic effects and other deleterious mental, psychological, physical, and spiritual effects of marijuana use and exposure to marijuana use.  Biochemical individuality and differences in the psychopharmacological effects that marijuana use has and exposure to marijuana use has,  all make regulation an impossibility."

   Paula D. Gordon PhD   Gordon Drug Abuse Prevention 

 Communication Team